I read the news today, oh boy

First, it’s notable what appears in the news on any given day. A day in the life of news seems to be governed by lots of big in-plain-sight events (the opening of the new Cowboys stadium in Dallas, say), a scoop here and there (the McChrystal report), a string of ongoing narratives that had been building for some time (the Annie Le murder). The focus of the news continues to be as splintered as it was in the past, although I wonder whether there are a number of stories under the surface. For instance, if I were to track the top stories on Fark or Reddit, I imagine the results would be different.

Second, the provenance of these stories is insane. The tracks made that bring these stories to mainstream acceptance or reporting (or more importantly, it seems, for the longevity of a story, commentary) come from every source imaginable, from the tiniest mention in the New York Post (the John Edwards affair) to the monster leak of the entire McChrystal report to Bob Woodward. Commentary may play the biggest role of all — stories are made big by pontificating, not by their inherent bigness. Give a story enough hot air and bloviating (from acolytes and detractors) and you will have a media storm and a piece of common memory.